Followers of events here in Evolution may have heard that last year our Exploration unit located a long lost passenger ferry called the Cebu Pioneer. The ferry sank in Typhoon Klaring in May 1966 with devastating loss of life and no one was sure where it lay. But local fishermen over the years had noticed a proliferation in their catch in a certain area, and with years of experience at sea they knew their home made rock anchors were dragging along a wreck.
In August David, Matt and Jakob Hinrichsen set out on Evolution’s second effort to find the ferry. Thought to be lying in 110m it proved a daunting task but we managed to be the first humans to see the ferry in 46 years with two 100m dives over successive days. Since then Evolution has been contacted by some of the family members of this disaster thanking us for locating their relatives final resting place.
This week we made our third dive on the wreck, this time pushing the limits with a 110m planned depth. This time joining Matt and David was Evolution Technical alumni and Advanced Trimix diver Jim Thompson ably supported by Advanced Trimix Sidemount diver Kristopher Blixt.
For this dive Matt was again using his trusty Pelagian DCCCR unit and as bail out carried an 11l bottom mix of 10/60, an 11l travel gas of 20/45 and two 5.5l tanks of 50 and 100{3c584785206271acba0b48c760be4725f0625fa591b4a52f771ab721d5a102df} respectively.
David and Jim went the old fashioned route and used Open Circuit carrying double tanks of 10/60 for the bottom, an 11l of 20/45 each and an extra 11l of 10/60 bottom mix as well as three 50{3c584785206271acba0b48c760be4725f0625fa591b4a52f771ab721d5a102df} 5.5l between them ensuring emergencies at depth, during travel and during decompression were covered. Tech enthusiasts will have noted by now the lack of Oxygen in the configuration. It was agreed that support diver Kristopher Blixt would have the rather large responsibility of taking David and Jim the crucial tanks of pure Oxygen needed to finish the dive and this was achieved without problem.
All in all the Open Circuit divers consumed close to 13,200 litres of gas while Matt on the Pelagian got through a whopping 650 litres. If that is not an advertisement for doing your Pelagian DCCCR course here at Evolution we don’t know what is!
The plan was for a 12 minute bottom time at 110m. Not long by any means but enough to significantly survey the foreword part of the wreck, which is teeming with massive groupers and schooling Trevally.
After the 12 had elapsed the team called the dive and made the 2 hour journey back to fresh air, starting their slow, staged ascent from 78m.
So another very memorable dive on an historic and tragic wreck here in Malapascua safely completed. Watch out later this year for our plans to place a memorial on the MV Cebu Pioneer and we hope to make a small YouTube documentary about the event.
Below is the video from our original dive on the Cebu Pioneer
